Cooler, Roulston to compete for USA Volleyball

Lawrence Conneff/Bluffton Today Bluffton High volleyball players Mackenzie Cooler, left, and Abby Roulston have been selected to a pair of USA Volleyball National Junior programs.

When Mackenzie Cooler and Abby Roulston traveled to Atlanta for a USA Volleyball tryout in March, neither of them expected much to come of it.

But about two months later, the Bluffton High teammates are preparing for a couple of major opportunities this summer. Cooler, a sophomore setter, was selected to the USA Women’s Junior National A2 team. Roulston, a junior middle blocker, earned a spot in the Indoor National Women’s Junior A3 program.

“There was a lot of good people there (in Atlanta) and a lot of good competition,” Roulston said. “It’s the top people in the country, so I was definitely surprised and excited.”

Cooler was one of 22 players named to the A2 team, which will train July 19-29 in Des Moines, Iowa. She said the players will be scouted and considered for spots in next year’s junior world championships.

In talking with Bluffton coach Al Stern, Cooler said, she went to Atlanta thinking she had a chance to gain entry into one of USA Volleyball’s summer camps. But she didn’t expect to be selected to the elite national team, especially as a sophomore.

“We were really shocked,” she said. “I always wished that it would happen, but never thought that it would.”

Roulston will travel to Colorado Springs, Colo., for the A3 program July 14-18. She will train with 63 other players at the five-day camp.

Cooler and Roulston are the first Bluffton High players to gain entry into either program. Stern said just two other players in the 16-year history of the Low Country Volleyball Club, on which they both compete, have done so.

“This is big. This was trying out against hundreds of their contemporaries, so it’s a very big deal,” Stern said. “It should really raise their game up. They’re going to see a level of volleyball that they haven’t seen before.”

The pair helped Bluffton reach the Lower State semifinals last fall, where it lost to state runner-up Myrtle Beach. The Bobcats also won the sixth region title in the program’s eight-year history.

Bluffton already owns a pair of Lower State championships and one state championship. Cooler and Roulston said they expect to compete for another title in SCHSL Class AAAA next season.

“Since I’ve been here, we’ve gotten pretty far in the state playoffs. We’ve won our region,” Roulston said. “I think this year we have a really good shot, even though we’re moving to AAAA.”